Ironic considering the millions upon millions that Saudis have spent on armaments of all kinds

jim, edinburgh,

Is this aboutthe new Bond film?

Q, London,

They must know who these pirates are by their high speed boats,and their change in life style from fishermen.Snatch squads should be sent in and their
families taken as hostages,now the boot would be on the other foot and negotiations could take place,then and only then they may stop these actions.

d.s.robertson, leicester, UK

Shade gps on all most critical areas and all pirates will be immediately lost at sea unless they become at once professional astronomers/sailors of old, which is not easy,
Also take away from all merchant ships the AIS advertising name cargo destination system. These 2 items are boost to crime,

giuseppe, naples, italy

Let all the pirates gather in the so called 'town", then just anihilate it.

Cause all shipping to steer at least 1000 kms from the pirate coast then create a death zone where any ship within that area can be destroyed at will.Send in Subs to to reconnaisance and sink pirate mother ships.Easy.

Simon, Sydney, Australia

And I wonder if the cargo is insured for more than it is currently worth? Oil is bought by future price, right? Lets see what the insured value v actual worth is. Seems a bit fishy sending a boat stuffed with oil unsupported into a pirate ridden area.

MJ, London, UK

no parots but there are some peg legs and a few eye patches if reports are to be belived!!!

phil, southend on sea, UK

No need to worry about the pirates claiming asylum in the UK .. just take no prisoners on the naval ships!!

Chris G , Wilmslow, Cheshire

Funny for the US after recent unilateral actions in Iraq/Afganistan to be calling the UN against the Somalis' actions. The're all at sea it seems: a few Kalshnikof and Rocket Launcher dangling Davids mocking the combined might of the world's superarmed Goliath.
An ancient Greek in London

Nicholas Xenakis, Borough, London, England

anybody ever hear of a Trojan Horse? I can't believe these pirates cannot be handled with a little old fashioned western justice.

walt morris , kellogg, id, usa

Are the ship owners realy worried? The ship and cargo surely must be insured.

Malcolm, London NE, UK

The only solution is to send in the Special Boat Service or the SAS to deal with these pirates. They need to be shown no mercy so that the rest of these pirates know that they risk their lives doing their business.

Jakob Kruuse, Mexico City, Mexico

How did the British empire gained it prominence back in the old days that rights piracy and also the irony of the saudis calling some terrorist lol

Leonid, london,

The problem is that Somalia is such a lost cause, that trying to apply the normal civilities is just not going to get you anywhere. The UN should apply a strict five mile limit from there shore . Any boat that dares ventures any further out, should be sunk and I hope the survivors can swim.

George, London, UK

These pirates could soon find that they have 'a tiger by the tail'

Clive Burghard, Lancing, ENGLAND

The money involved is small change to the oil rich saudi's, lets hope they spend the ransom money on some special forces and teach the pirates a lesson . they will be sick as a parrot.

Bate A, Hartlepool, UK

Where are the SBS when you need them? They'd sort it out in half an hour

David, St Albans, UK

I'd like to know if they have parots on their shoulders. does anyone know?

Mimi, gravesend, uk

who the hell do these people think they are? why dont they do the same thing we all have to and get a damn job!!!!

stuart, scunthorpe, england

Am I being simple? I can't understand why the wonderful navies in world just don't go and blow these pirates out of the water. If we could beat the German navy in the second world war why should these guys give us any problems? Oops nearly forgot about our sailors taken prisoner by Iran.

Ian, Bristol,

I suggest running a float cordon around the tanker as a precautionary measure to contain the oil if they do decide to scupper the tanker. Next pay the ransom in "tracked" SOLID GOLD BULLION, now get that lot back ashore without being killed...then arrest them when they next enter international water

MJ, London, UK

I think we need to read between the lines here. Firstly, why is a Saudi supertanker registered in Liberia? Secondly, how come the west can control all sea traffic in & out of the Arabian gulf when it threatens their stance on Iraq & Iran but not when it comes to the easily controlled entry to Suez?

Steve Payne, Valencia, Spain

They are not terrorists,they are criminals and do this for the money you can see this in their actions.
to stop it, somalia needs a stable political power in place or an audacious military intervention. How this could be acheived i havnt got a clue because there will be too much diplomatic issues

tom, london, U.K

Pay all the ransom's on all the hijacked ships captured so far.
All those hostages and oil cargo make Special Forces rescue extremly difficult.
Re-route future transportation routes further off the Somalia coast. Any speed boat approching ships should be destroyed before contact. Problem solved.

jim, brighton,

Didn't Britain have this problem in the second world war, as I remember it they sent in armed merchantmen to lure the enemy into a false sense of security and when they were near enough blew them to kingdom come. They called them Q ships

Mick Thomas, downham mkt, UK

You can only fight fire with fire. All nations are threatened so until Somalia cleans up its act, why not group all merchant ships together in the Gulf and send them off in convoys with a war ship escort . The potentially small delay is nothing compared to crew safety and ransom money paid

George Simpson, Cognac, France

It's pretty obvious how it is going to end and it won't be with a ransom payout...

Mark, Brigg, UK

Hardly surprising, another underhanded coup from yet another run-down Third World country. Why do we even bother supporting Third World countries? I suspect though, that in a remote part of the region, an SF team is being assembled to deal with the situation.

Gordon Tait, Kirkcaldy, Scotland

Must be time to send a cargo-ship full of planks and not the kind negotiating with these people.

E J Murray, Kerry, Ireland

probably george bush's fault.

Pete, Chicago, USA

The problem is that the cargo is too easy to ignite should any dashing SAS type rescue be attempted and the result would be catastrophic. Remember these guys don't mind blowing themselves up.

Nick, brisbane, Australia

Lots of militia and pirates in one place makes a great target.

dave, london,

Its a hard one for the goverments really, because if they pay the $25million the pirates are asking for this will give way to further ships being hijacked for more money each time and more lifes being put a risk.

Matt, Hastings, England

I say do what the French did with crack SAS teams or some other elite military force & then get the burocrats to go away & arrest all the other pirates

Scott, Glasgow, UK

I find the obstacle of 21st century political correctness absurd. The fact that the British government is worried about pirates claiming asylum. They are called 'pirates' for a reason, back in the old empire days surely these people would be shot plain and simple. I fully support Nato/EU deployment.

Elliott, London ,

If I were the pirates I would not be sleeping well. The Saudi's are famous for their unforgiving stance to those who break their laws - piracy of their property high on their list. I would not be surprised if these pirates appeared on the internet soon being beheaded in Riyadh. No lost sleep there.

Richard, Bradfield, UK

why are these shipping companies negotiating with them? surely they must undestand that every ransom paid, is a gurantee of probably another 5 or more ships being attacked.

will, grimsby, uk

bring on the SAS , could make for a great bond movie

mike, swanea, west glam

Quite tasty at the moment though, I would suspect.

Bill, Minneapolis,

if they are not stopped now, they are just going to do it again and again.

Chris, Camberley, UK

Pirates?These are terrorists........ How terrible!

Agius M., Balzan, Malta

Any one of Hollywood's action heroes would have them all tied up in a line by tea-time.

Phil, Epsom, England

To me, it appears that these guys have bitten off more than they can chew.

Julian, Twickenham, UK